A Distant Memory
by lazyscarecrow
Summary: Kakashi wakes with memories of a day that he has not yet lived. Upon finding twenty years of events that have yet to occur, what's a genius chuunin to do other than keep these tragedies from becoming his own? [Time travel ish]


Kakashi had overslept. Such occurrences were rare, but it happened from time to time when he overworked himself. Whether it was suddenly intensifying his physical conditioning regimen or taking on a new ninjutsu skill requiring too much chakra that he didn't have, his body's favored method of recovery was extra sleep.

Remembering this, Kakashi couldn't understand why his clock was showing him seven thirty-four rather than six in the morning. He'd spent the previous day wholly absorbed researching advanced nature manipulation since Sensei was away on a mission. Definitely nothing strenuous. Though he'd gone to bed slightly later than usual, he should not have woken much after his normal rising time. What's more, he in no way should have slept through his alarm that he set for exactly this event. Waking up late happened, his sleep control wasn't perfect, and he set his alarm for seven as a backup measure. Never had he slept past this contingency plan.

Puzzling the slipup through the lingering haze of the night's dream, Kakashi didn't quite notice his impending lateness until it was fifteen minutes to the meeting time. Mind snapping to irritated attention, he hurried to dress, wash his face, and almost forgot to throw some food in a bag for lunch. Sensei had returned last night, and the team's first training session whenever he returned always lasted until sunset. If you didn't bring food, you didn't eat – a rule which only held out until someone took pity on the starving teammate and fed them from their own lunch. Obito was often the object of Sensei and Rin's pity.

Even running over Konoha's rooftops, it took ten full minutes to reach the fourteenth training ground. By regular standards, Kakashi was early to training (if only by five minutes). By the standards of his sensei and teammate, he was horrifically late. Kakashi was a boy who thrived on punctuality and arrived precisely half an hour before training every day.

Ignoring their looks of concern, he gave them a quick nod in greeting and sat with them in the grass. If they were lucky, Obito would arrive in half an hour. If not, then they'd go retrieve him at the one-hour mark.

Until then, Kakashi closed his eyes and drowned out the world around him. His morning rush had irritated him more than expected and the afterimages of the strange dream he'd had refused to dissipate with the day. The dream left him feeling tired as if he hadn't slept at all, aggravated, confused, and his head ached thinking about anything. He needed to calm down.

Vivid and detailed, despite the disjointed nature of the images, Kakashi wondered why he couldn't put aside a dream about a training session with his team. It had been another one of their day-long practices, much like today would probably play out, but Kakashi didn't think he was excited enough to dream about it. Sure, Sensei had been gone two long weeks, but he'd kept plenty busy in the meantime and hadn't been bored. If anything, he wished for a few more days on his own to continue research for the lightning technique he was developing.

Sensei stood, some time later, smiling as he addressed them. The expression made Kakashi frown; it was far too familiar to one he'd seen far too recently. "Let's go find our waylaid teammate."

His mind flashed to a scene of the three of them pulling Obito from the nearby vegetable market.

"Give him five minutes."

"Kakashi?" Sensei asked, and Kakashi could hear several questions in his name.

"He'll be here in five minutes and I'd rather not waste time and energy on him if he's close by." He forced his tone to end further questioning. His teammates didn't press but Kakashi's gratitude was dampened by the increasing pressure in his temples.

Five minutes later, Obito arrived, spouting an excuse about helping a cabbage farmer set up his stall in the market.

 _What does this mean?_

What he saw felt like a memory, brief as it was. The most worrying thing though, was that it had predicted how late Obito would be, had known that Obito had been in the vegetable market. If Kakashi hadn't spoken up, he was certain that the scene would have played out exactly as the dream showed when they went to get him.

Throughout the day he managed to predict a number of things that he really shouldn't have: the random sparring order with Sensei, the quick taijutsu tip Sensei gave Rin, Kushina's impromptu visit during lunch (she'd deplored Kakashi's small, lackluster meal), the shuriken Obito accidentally sat on, and the sudden force of the wind near the end of the day, among other things.

With each detail of the dream replicated in real life, Kakashi grew more and more unsettled. The dream hadn't shown everything about today, but what it did was never wrong. His headache did not abate and he was sure he was going to put a kunai in the back of Obito's head if he said something about his sharingan _just one more time_.

When Sensei finally called it a day, Kakashi made an excuse about his ninken and left before he could be coerced into joining them for dinner.

He needed a session of deep meditation, not ramen.

.

Meditation before bed was a habit he'd taken up when he first made genin, a ritual his father implemented sternly alongside brushing his teeth and telling him 'good night'. The blankness of it was calm and soothing, allowing Kakashi's constantly buzzing mind to idle peacefully.

Tonight he was not given the anticipated blankness he desired after his confusing day. A man stood before him in his meditation plane. His frame was tall and strong, lean and muscular even under the dark Konoha blues and standard flak jacket. Kakashi's eyes were drawn to the man's head, topped with wild silver and a face almost entirely hidden by a mask over the mouth and forehead protector slanted over an eye. The man looked like Kakashi grown up, disregarding the disgraceful slouch that marred his posture.

"Who're you?" Kakashi demanded, because no matter how like him the man looked, there was still an unknown man in his meditation plane.

"You. Older. From the future I guess." The man was almost flippant, but retained enough seriousness to keep Kakashi from dismissing him completely. He was obviously deranged, but perhaps something could be learned from talking to him.

"Are you the one who gave me the weird dream?"

A snort. "If only it were a dream. No, those are my memories. Yours too, to an extent."

"You're some sort of genjutsu." Immediately, Kakashi tried every method of release that he knew. The genjutsu user was strong, it seemed.

"I'm not an illusion. I'm you from a future that I'm hoping to prevent with your help."

"You're insane."

The man looked frustrated, an expression Kakashi knew should have been concealed by the mask identical to his own. "The first tooth you lost was replaced by one that looked a lot more canine than human. You freaked out. Dad lost it in a laughing fit."

Kakashi felt himself flush. His panic had been embarrassing, as had his father's ridiculous amusement, but it led to a lesson on the Hatake clan's ties to an ancient wolf pack from before the Shodai's time. "Dad could have blabbed to someone," he muttered, but even as he said it, he remembered his father leaving that very morning for the mission that would ruin the White Fang's life, and knew his son's first fang had been quickly forgotten. "If you've given me your memories, how come they've been so hard to pin down?"

His look-a-like gave a pleased hum, and it unnerved Kakashi to be read so easily. Many would not have recognized the concession for what it was.

"I sealed them in there," the older said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. Kakashi had no idea when it had appeared, but behind his other self was the Hatake estate. His clan house stood proudly without the remnants of vandalism that he couldn't quite remove in the real world. He could smell the warm soil of the summer garden that Kakashi had let die with his father. This was his house as it should be. "Twenty years of new memories would be a lot to dump on you, especially all at once. I left a few as a trail to get you here. When you enter the house, you'll be able to go through the memories at your own pace. Hopefully with this information, you'll be able to keep some of these memories from becoming yours for real."

"You want me to… change the future?"

"Yep."

"Is it really so bad, where-when you're from? This seems drastic."

"You'll see. The world's never been pretty, but you've got some precious things to protect. Even if you don't realize it yet. I've changed a lot from where you're at right now, but I know you'll understand."

Kakashi didn't like the implications of that. "It sounds like I'm going to be doing all the work here."

"True, there's little I can do apart from influence you to make changes. But I've convinced you to at least give this all a chance, which means I can give you the key to my memories." The older Kakashi pulled one of his hands out of his pockets and tossed him a key in one fluid motion. It looked identical to the key to the actual house, apart from the small intricate seal engraved into the metal.

"You'll help though, right?" he asked, feeling an ebb of unease wash through him. There was something about the other Kakashi that told him that the man's very soul was beyond exhausted. Beaten, more like. The thought of confronting what could make someone into that frightened him.

"This is about it for me, actually," the other Kakashi replied, genuine regret in his tone. "I'm kind of just a chakra whisper. It took a ridiculous amount of chakra to get here, and building this memory seal house wasn't a walk over water either. I had to create something secure to keep these memories protected. Without that key no one will be able to access the information you have."

"So you're just going to leave me with all this?" Kakashi snapped. The older him was already starting to fade. "Abandon me to apparently save the world all on my own?"

"Technically I'll always be with you, since I'm you," he countered with an expression that could only be described as cheeky. How did he grow up to be _that?_ "Be careful out there, there's a lot more going on than you know. Oh, and try being less of an asshole."

With that the man was gone, leaving his shorter counterpart in front of the seal house bearing the Hatake crest over the front door.

Kakashi looked at the key in his hand, contemplating the absurdity of what just happened. Did he really believe any of this? He turned the key between his fingers, warming the metal until it no longer felt cold.

The older Kakashi had brought more questions than he did answers, and if anything the boy was of the curious sort.

Sliding the key into the lock, Kakashi opened the door and entered the memory house.


End file.
